Laughing Touch (Sp): At 1st level, you can cause a creature to burst out laughing for 1 round as a melee touch attack. A laughing creature can only take a move action but can defend itself normally. Once a creature has been affected by laughing touch, it is immune to its effects for 24 hours. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Okay, here's a good one. Let me see if I've got this all squared in my head.

Q1: As I understand it, if you're on the back of a spring attacking mount, any movement based AOOs on the rider are negated by the mount's feats, and the only AOOs the rider would provoke would be from actions the rider takes during the movement, not from the movement itself. Is that correct?

Q3: Spell goes off at the midpoint of the mount's movement, correct? I read that on forums, but can't find the rule - would help to know where that is. Thanks in advance.

Q4: If the mount moved more before its attack than after, then the spell will go off before the mount closes to bite, and no casting on the defensive is necessary, correct?

Q5: If the mount moved more after its attack than before, then the spell will go off after the mount closes to bite. Does the defender get an AOO on the spellcasting rider even though he does not get an AOO on the mount? And would casting on the defensive prevent this AOO even though the caster is moving in and out of the defender's threatened zone, since his movement is tied to the spring attacking mount?

Not talking mechanically, but rather in the fluff. I don't recall the idea that Half Elves are loners being a big deal in 1st or 2nd edition DND, but it's wallpapered all over the Pathfinder fluff. Where'd it come from? Was that a Dragonlance thing or something? Or was it there all along and I just missed it before? Tolkein didn't make a big deal out of it I don't think, and I don't believe the original Norse did either.

Light cantrip is range "object touched," no save, no SR. Can I cast it on, say, the enemy rogue's hat? If so, does the enemy rogue get a save, and if so, what save? Reflex? I presume a touch attack would be necessary.

My extended gaming group runs a lot of rotating GM games, where one person will run for a couple of levels worth of plot and then we hand the game off. Our oldest game has reached Level 17. It's a high loot, epic build game, where every character is highly gross. After the last GM's stint was done, it's been sitting on a shelf, because everyone agreed to pitch in and craft ourselves one of those Ravingdork(tm) Staves of Wishes. Why not. And no GM wants to step up to tackle that yet, so we're running a couple low level things instead for the time being, while everyone scratches their head about who's going to run it.

Well I had an idea, that the crafting reagents for such a monstrously campaign breaking Artifact Item probably wouldn't be obtainable in any shop - they'd probably only be obtainable from the Gods themselves. So I need stats. This is an evil group.

Brief synopsis: There are many different smaller "prime material" planes, each one run by a different Old Earth pantheon (greek/norse/egypt/etc) and all connected by an enchanted sea, that may only be crossed by boat. (no teleportations) Outer Planes are by pantheon (Tartarus, Jotunheim, Diaz, Tamoanchan, etc etc), are coterminus, and can only be accessed through coterminus entrances from the region they're associated with. So no gating to Hades if you're hanging out in the Norse region. The deity list is only restricted by history, and Wikipedia is our campaign reference.

So basically, the reagent list to craft the Staff of Wishes could include:

So that means I need stats for these Gods, or stats for other Gods that I can easily swap around and modify for my purposes. I do not want to have to hand-craft a dozen 40th level (or whatever) Pathfinder NPCsto run this story arc.

What resources are out there? Has anyone tackled this problem, or a similar one?

"the bad guy attempts to do X"
"I take an immediate action to do Y and thwart X."

Works?
Timing?

For instance, take the Spell Shield magus arcana. Gives you a bonus AC as an immediate action for a round. Since its an immediate action, its clearly intended to be used in response to an enemy attack. Does it work like this:

There used to be guidelines for this in one of the supplement books for AD&D 1st Ed I believe. Does Pathfinder have something for this? In particular, I'm looking for guidelines on (1) construction cost, (2) construction time, and (3) upkeep, for outposts, castles, precious metal mines, etc.

20 point buy, and I get to throw a +3 tome on one stat. Starting at first level, but I want to have a good idea where I'll be at around 12.

Since staff is a monk weapon, a single level splash can effectively get me two weapon fighting, a bonus feat (dodge probably), +2 in all saves, and wisdom bonus to ac. Seems like it might be worth being a level behind in magus, and the loss of armor isn't as huge because its light armor anyway, and I'd get armor spell. Opinions?

If I do it, I need an idea how to divy stats. Seems like maybe the best thing to do given the gnome abilities is dump con and cha, then put 7 in each other stat bringing each to 15. Throw the tome in STR to compensate for the racial penalty. Level bumps at 4 and 8 would be to dex and wis.

Thoughts? Better ideas? I'm married to the gnome staff magus premise, just wondering how best to work it.

Came up in our game tonight, since we have both a lich and a grave knight in the party, one of which has an aura that causes fear without a clearly stated way to stop causing fear, and the other has an aura that negates fear immunity, without a clearly stated way to stop negating everyone's fear immunity.

This could cause problems for our party. Like, for example, the inability to function as a party.

Comments are welcome. I was always under the impression that auras in general were optional things that PCs could take down if they wanted to. Is this not true? I can't seem to find a rule or ruling that states it.

**
White Hair (Su): At 1st level, a white-haired witch gains
the ability to use her hair as a weapon. This functions as
a primary natural attack with a reach of 5 feet. The hair
deals 1d4 points of damage (1d3 for a Small witch) plus the
witch’s Intelligence modifier. In addition, whenever the
hair strikes a foe, the witch can attempt to grapple that foe
with her hair as a free action without provoking an attack
of opportunity, using her Intelligence modifier in place of
her Strength modifier when making the combat maneuver
check. When a white-haired witch grapples a foe in this
way, she does not gain the grappled condition.
**
Pull (Ex): At 6th level, a white-haired witch who
successfully strikes a foe with her hair can attempt a
combat maneuver check to pull the creature 5 feet closer
to her as a free action.
**

Doesn't the successful grapple automatically pull the opponent to five feet away from you anyway, where it can take a full attack action against you the following round?

Web (ex):
"Creatures with the web ability can use webs to support themselves and up to one additional creature of the same size. In addition, such creatures can throw a web up to eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets up to one size category larger than the web spinner. An entangled creature can escape with a successful Escape Artist check or burst the web with a Strength check. Both are standard actions with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the creature’s HD + the creature’s Con modifier. Attempts to burst a web by those caught in it take a –4 penalty."

Net:
"Benefit: When you throw a net, you make a ranged touch attack against your target. A net's maximum range is 10 feet. If you hit, the target is entangled. An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty on Dexterity, can move at only half speed, and cannot charge or run. If you control the trailing rope by succeeding on an opposed Strength check while holding it, the entangled creature can move only within the limits that the rope allows. If the entangled creature attempts to cast a spell, it must make a concentration check with a DC of 15 + the spell's level or be unable to cast the spell."

Entangled:
"The character is ensnared. Being entangled impedes movement, but does not entirely prevent it unless the bonds are anchored to an immobile object or tethered by an opposing force. An entangled creature moves at half speed, cannot run or charge, and takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity. An entangled character who attempts to cast a spell must make a concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) or lose the spell."

Question:
Giant Black Widow Spider webs a PC. Is the web "anchored" as in the entangle descriptor, or is it loose like a net?

All old world religions and mythologies (norse/egypt/greek/etc) transplanted into individual island chains, each of which acts like a zone boundary that prevents teleportation/scrying/etc, so the occupants must sail from chain to chain. And there's pirates.

It was built to support easy GM rotation and compartmentalized adventuring in different settings, leaning on real world myth as the back-story.

"Share spells" allows you to throw "caster only" stuff on your familiar. So you throw Alter Self on your familiar, it turns into a small or medium humanoid, and it can wield a wand or other spell trigger item.

So heres the question: Can it use the wand with an appropriate UMD check at that point, or would it also need to know how to speak?

If the former, what are the best ways to get the UMD score up?
If the latter, what are the best ways to grant the ability to activate the wand to the familiar?

Where I'm going with this:

I have a witch character, and I'd intended to do the whole Faerie Dragon Wields a Wand thing, using improved familiar feat, but I just found out today that if I switch familiars I lose all the spells the familiar knows. (totally lame btw) So I'm looking to pull the same trick off with my existing familiar. No, it's not a raven.

Apologies way in advance because I know these questions have all been answered before, and if you'd like to just direct me to the answers that'd be fine. Also, yelling at me for not being able to search properly is fine too, I can take it. Although I can assure you I tried.

First three are related.

1)
I cast detect magic out of sight, out in a hallway. I walk into a room. Do the people in the room know that I'm currently "detecting magic" without having seen me cast the spell?

2)
Detect evil, same question.

3)
I'm a paladin, and use my detect evil ability. Same question.

4)
I'm speaking to someone and in the course of the conversation I throw Charm Person. Do they know that I'm casting a spell at them as I cast it, and therefore are they immediately hostile to me because of the spell being cast on them?

So there's a lawful evil cleric. He has the "alignment channel" feat for evil. As I understand it, that would allow him to choose between healing evil outsiders and harming evil outsiders, but does nothing to good outsiders, correct?

Second question, what if the evil outsider is an undead? Can he harm the evil outsider undead with his alignment channel feat even though channeling negative energy wouldn't ordinarily be able to harm regular undead?

My gaming group has switched to PF for over a year now, maybe close to two, and we still call it "DND" when we're discussing it with other people. Like, we say "Are we playing DND on Friday?" instead of "Are we playing Pathfinder on Friday?" I also notice that when I stick PF games into my schedule, I type "DND." My wife still calls it DND.

Anyone else notice the same thing? Note for the sake of discussion, nobody I've talked to bothered playing DND4thED.

tl;dr version: I would like to craft a wand for my King Crab familiar to use.

Long version:

Lots of people in Pathfinder give wands to their Raven familiar (who knows a language and can therefore speak command words) and allow the Raven familiar to make a UMD check to activate the wand. This vastly increases their action economy, and is almost too good a trick to pass up if you're a wizard or a witch. The problem with this, to me, is it funnels players into certain familiar choices that really reduce the available flavor of the classes. I would like to do the same trick with a King Crab, but want to discuss more generally doing the same trick with other familiars as well, and it comes down to an official ruling over what counts as a "word" for other organisms.

Relevant rules -

Spell Trigger:
Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it's even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Spell trigger items can be used by anyone whose class can cast the corresponding spell. This is the case even for a character who can't actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin. The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

(excerpt from) Use Magic Device:
Use a Wand, Staff, or Other Spell Trigger Item: Normally, to use a wand, you must have the wand's spell on your class spell list. This use of the skill allows you to use a wand as if you had a particular spell on your class spell list.

Discussion -

UMD clearly allows the familiar to skip the caster prereq. If the familiar can speak, then it can use any typical wand off a shelf because wands down at Wands Emporium are made for humans, and humans communicate via words. The question is this - if I'm crafting a wand, and I'm choosing the "command word" for the wand, may I not substitute another form of communication than "words" if the wand is to be used by a creature that communicates in another manner? Could I custom craft a wand with a "Command Squeak" for my bat? "Command Screech" for my hawk? Please bear in mind that at 5th level, the Wizard can communicate with the bat or hawk via squeaks or screeches, so the wizard has a clear command of the language of his familiar before he crafts the wand.

A parallel question that may help tool out the answer:
Are there any races in the bestiary that have Wizards, but do not communicate with "words?" If so, are they prohibited from crafting wands or staves for their use?

Played last night in a 3rd level game and I build a weird character out, wondered if anyone had any ideas for other ways to augment the concept.

Witch (Sea Hermit is the concept)
Venerable age category
Dump cha as much as possible
Dump wis as much as possible
Leave str very low (3 or 4 is fine after the -6 from age)
Leave dex semi low
Augment con some
Peg int through the roof, insanely high, as much as you can go

King Crab familiar (+2 grapple) lives in a bucket of water. Starting gear includes a Handy Haversack (5 lb) to mitigate encumbrance due to the low Str.

Focus on touch spells with spell selection due to the hair.

I'm not totally set on which spell path thingy to take, and I'm not totally set on other Hexes, but I'm liking the Evil Eye - Cackle combo as my 2nd hex, and third feat (extra hex). I'm also wondering if there's anything else I'm missing. Not a lot of great optimization material on witch yet.

I'm not very familiar with the newer bestiary stuff, and I just cracked 12 on my druid, so I'm looking for advice on which forms are the most optimal. I've got a spreadsheet I'm working off of in my game (iPad / Numbers) that will do some of the pre-wildshape math for me, because it's horrid to try and do on the fly, so I want to enter some forms in it that are obvious/typical/advantageous.

Here's what I've pulled so far, many from Treatmonk's Druid guide, but his guide as best as I'm aware hasn't been updated for any new beastiary stuff:

Bat (diminutive animal) stealthy, blindsense, flight, good for night scouting
Eagle (small animal) nice flight, not going to scare the pesants, good day scouting form
Pternaodon (large animal) one of the better aerial combat nature forms

All Elemental Forms are quality, and basically where you stay at most of the time.

So here some gaping holes, that I'm wondering if anyone has any advice about filling:

First hole: Plant forms?

Treant crit range and DR is nice. Is it worth it to take on fire vulnerability?
Tendrilicus has Regeneration, attacks leave something to be desired but seems like a good 'heal yourself' downtime form?
Quickwood form would have resistance to fire and electricity, also has 4 attacks
Moonflower has DR 10/slashing and pulls two immunities, but still lands the fire vulnerability

None of those is overwhelmingly cool, but they're not bad. Is there another that I'm missing that's quality? Is there another form with regeneration other than the Tendrilicus?

Second Hole: Magical Beasts?

Any advice here? I haven't looked heavily at them yet but it seems like Chimera, Winter Wolf, and Girallon might be worth a hard look.

Ability holes:

Web? Does any form anywhere have web?
Roar? Is Dragonne it?
Breath Weapon?
What form has the best poison?
Anything else with regen other than the Tendrilicus?

A paladin who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who violates the code of conduct loses all paladin spells and class features (including the service of the paladin's mount, but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any further in levels as a paladin. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see atonement), as appropriate.

I'm thinking specifically of two parallel cases.

Geas a Paladin to do evil things. If he does them, does he lose his class features, or is the Geas a legit excuse to do evil stuff because he's under a compulsion?

Flipcase: Antipaladin gets hit with Euphoric Tranquility, and is asked to do something good while under the spell. If he does it, does he lose his class features until he atones?

By rule I would think that the answer should be the same for both, either both "yes" or both "no," but "no" to the first one seems open to exploit, and "yes" to the second seems open to exploit.

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Text:

Quote:

You create a huge black storm cloud in the air. Each creature under the cloud must succeed on a Fortitude save or be deafened for 1d4 x 10 minutes. Each round you continue to concentrate, the spell generates additional effects as noted below. Each effect occurs on your turn.

3rd Round: You call six bolts of lightning down from the cloud. You decide where the bolts strike. No two bolts may be directed at the same target. Each bolt deals 10d6 points of electricity damage. A creature struck can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.